Tamara Robinson scored 17 of her season-high 19 points in the second half, but it wasn’t enough as the Ouachita Baptist University women’s basketball team dropped a 65-51 Gulf South Conference West Division contest to Arkansas Tech Thursday night at Tucker Coliseum.
Robinson was 7-of-11 from the floor to finish with a career high. A’Laeshia Adams scored all 10 of her points in the first half. The Lady Tigers (11-5 overall, 1-3 GSC West) were 19-of-61 (31 percent) from the floor and 4-of-22 (18 percent) from behind the 3-point line.
The Golden Suns (14-3, 4-0) began the game on an 8-2 run after Nikki Earles drained a 3-pointer with 17:18 remaining in the opening half. After a free throw by Amanda Grappe, Adams sank a 3-pointer with 15:22 left to cut the deficit to 9-5.
Arkansas Tech, which was 11-of-31 (35.5 percent) shooting in the opening half, extended the margin to 15-8 after Brittany Gottsponer scored on a fastbreak layup with 10:22 remaining in the half. The Golden Suns took a 19-8 lead with 7:11 left after a bucket by Amanda Grappe.
Robinson scored the first Lady Tigers bucket in nearly five minutes on a short jumper with 7:02 left to cut the deficit to 19-10. After forcing a turnover, Ouachita, which was 8-of-30 (26.7 percent) from the floor in the first half, got a deep 3-pointer by Adams to trim the margin to 19-13 with 6:21 remaining, forcing Arkansas Tech to call timeout.
Ouachita continued to chip away at the Golden Suns lead. After Melissa Richardson forced a charging call on the defensive end, Gabby Coleman scored on a short jumper to cut the deficit to 23-20 with 1:29 remaining.
However, the Golden Suns scored on back-to-back trips down the court. Angela Colliver was fouled with four seconds left in the half and sank the pair from the charity stripe to cut the Arkansas Tech advantage to 27-22 at the half.
The Golden Suns opened the second half with a 10-0 run, capped by a Heissy Robledo free throw with 16:42 remaining to take a 37-22 advantage. Ouachita tried to trim away at the Arkansas Tech lead as Coleman drained a 3-pointer and Haley Griffin scored on a jumper to trim the margin to 44-31 with 12:17 left.
Robinson, continuing to play with a lot of emotion, helped get Ouachita back into the game as she scored on a jumper to cut the deficit to 48-37 with 9:21 remaining. However, the Lady Tigers couldn’t get any closer than 10 points in the final five minutes.
Amanda Grappe paced the Golden Suns with 19 points, while Earles added 13. Robledo finished with 12 points and eight boards before fouling out with 2:01 remaining. Arkansas Tech was 23-of-53 (43 percent) shooting and 4-of-11 (36 percent) from behind the 3-point line.
Ouachita returns 3 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 24 to Bill Vining Arena to take on Southern Arkansas in a Gulf South Conference West Division game. The contest can be heard on the Ouachita Baptist University Athletic Web site at: www.obutigers.com.
